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#1 Re: General matters » Need some help deciding if XSI backup is right for my needs » 2017-09-11 14:49:46

prehcm

Follow this tutorial: https://33hops.com/xsibackup-pro-onedif … olicy.html
In any case, why not using deduplication if you have it available and on top of that you already have a fresh backup?

if I get this right, I can't use deduplication as I stated multiple times that I do not have a second server.

I have:
1 ESXI 6.5 with 1 datastore (locally attached HDs/RAID) and 1 datastore (mounted via NFS - formatted with whatever file system is best)
So the link you gave won't work as it talks about: "chain an © XSITools backup on the other end" and I do not have another end.

I think I will demo test the PRO version and use --backup-prog=OneDiff to backup to my datastore mounted via NFS as explained above. If I get this right, this way I can limit the backup space used while using differential backups. Combien that with i.e. a weekly cron job should do the trick. Except I can't figure out how to "restore" from a OneDiff backup.

Something like: 

 /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/xsi-dir/xsibackup --backup-point=/vmfs/volumes/datastore2/_backups --backup-type=all --date-dir=yes --backup-prog=OneDiff --mail-from=administrator@mydomain.tld --mail-to=administrator@mydomain.tld --smtp-srv=mail.mydomain.tld --smtp-port=25 --smtp-auth=none --smtp-usr=any --smtp-pwd=any --snapshot=includememory --backup-room=XXX

of course I also need to sort out the SMTP auth as this isn't working yet due to issues on my side.
---------------

###edit###
I realize this is going in circles and it looks like I am too blonde to use your PRO version or unserstand its usage.
I'll stick to the free version and keep 4 weekly full backups which should be enough for my current purposes.
its entirely my fault to fail to understand how to properly use the PRO version.

Thanks a lot for your tries to help me understand the product though.

#2 Re: General matters » Unable to send the backup report via email » 2017-09-11 14:31:30

prehcm

Oh, I see, my mailserver was advertising that it supports pipelining and then I had indeed used smtpd_data_restrictions = reject_unauth_pipelining

thanks for the pointers, I'll sort this out now.

#3 General matters » Unable to send the backup report via email » 2017-09-11 09:20:48

prehcm
Replies: 2

This is the command I am using, the backup seems to work just fine except there is a problem sending the email. I do not need or want SMTP authentication.

 /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/xsi-dir/xsibackup --backup-point=/vmfs/volumes/datastore1/_backups --backup-type=all --date-dir=yes --mail-from=administrator@mydomain.tld --mail-to=administrator@mydomain.tld --smtp-srv=mail.mydomain.tld --smtp-port=25 --smtp-auth=none --smtp-usr=any --smtp-pwd=any --snapshot=includememory --backup-room=120

XSI backup shows this on the cmd line after the backup:

*************************************************************************
*  ESXi Server configuration backup is only available in XSIBACKUP-PRO  *
*************************************************************************
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some warnings were raised
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Firewall rule SMTPout-25 added...
220 mail.mydomain.tld ESMTP Postfix
250 mail.mydomain.tld
250-mail.mydomain.tld
250-PIPELINING
250-SIZE 52428800
250-ETRN
250-STARTTLS
250-AUTH CRAM-MD5 LOGIN PLAIN DIGEST-MD5
250-AUTH=CRAM-MD5 LOGIN PLAIN DIGEST-MD5
250-ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES
250-8BITMIME
250 DSN
250 2.1.0 Ok
250 2.1.5 Ok
503 5.5.0 <DATA>: Data command rejected: Improper use of SMTP command pipelining
Firewall rule SMTPout-25 closed.
Backup finished

my mail server logs:

 Transcript of session follows.

 Out: 220 mail.mydomain.tld ESMTP Postfix
 In:  helo server.myesxi.tld
 Out: 250 mail.mydomain.tld
 In:  ehlo server.myesxi.tld
 Out: 250-mail.mydomain.tld
 Out: 250-PIPELINING
 Out: 250-SIZE 52428800
 Out: 250-ETRN
 Out: 250-STARTTLS
 Out: 250-AUTH CRAM-MD5 LOGIN PLAIN DIGEST-MD5
 Out: 250-AUTH=CRAM-MD5 LOGIN PLAIN DIGEST-MD5
 Out: 250-ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES
 Out: 250-8BITMIME
 Out: 250 DSN
 In:  MAIL FROM: <administrator@mydomain.tld>
 Out: 250 2.1.0 Ok
 In:  RCPT TO: <administrator@mydomain.tld>
 Out: 250 2.1.5 Ok
 In:  DATA
 Out: 503 5.5.0 <DATA>: Data command rejected: Improper use of SMTP command
     pipelining
 In:  SUBJECT: =?utf-8?Q?=E2=9C=94_XSIBACKUP_no_errors_detected_in_backup_job?=
     | ESXi Backup Report. More OSS at
     https://33hops.com/free-open-source-software.html#xsibackup
 Out: 221 2.7.0 Error: I can break rules, too. Goodbye.


For other details, see the local mail logfile

If I skip these 2 parameters: --smtp-usr=any --smtp-pwd=any XSI Backup has other complaints and told me that if I use --smtp-auth=none I need to also provide these other 2 switches.
Here is the error without those two switches:

Some warnings were raised
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Error: you must set an --smtp-usr
Error: you must set a password, use any if combined with --smtp-auth=none
iError: cannot determine the e-mail server credentials

Also, if I add this switch to the end of above command, XSI backups starts, then says killed and closes.

 --smart-info=yes

any ideas?

#4 Re: General matters » Need some help deciding if XSI backup is right for my needs » 2017-09-11 08:08:22

prehcm

Thanks for all the help, I am still reading up on what you said and trying to figure it all out. I will now go play with the free version and see what I can come up with.

One last quick question:
What I am looking for is a solution which can backup VMs (in whatever format - they don't need to be run from there I just need to be able to restore them back onto the original host) to a datastore (lets say an NFS share formatted with whatever file system you think is best) and keep a set of historic backups i.e. 4 weekly and 7 daily ones. Lets forget about deduplication for now but I need differential backups. So is XSITools what I need and is there a tutorial to point out which deals with a similar need available?

#5 Re: General matters » Need some help deciding if XSI backup is right for my needs » 2017-09-07 12:56:42

prehcm

Thanks for the pointers but this is where things become unclear:

You say OneDiff and locally and on the other hand you say XSITools and repository so I am wondering what repository means in this case. reading up on OneDiff your site talks about datastores being the target so I assume when you say locally that means an attached datastore.

I'm now looking at OneDiff first and backing up to a datastore. To keep a historic set of backups, I found this article. but there you talk about:

Now you need a way to chain an © XSITools backup on the other end once this first stage of the process is over.

so what does "other end" mean? this is only one server with 2 datastores. Where do I execute this XSITools then?

I see the other options are i.e. borg backup. I am familiar with borg and use it in another scenario to backup a few linux servers. BUT I think to use it, I need to backup with OneDiff to a 2nd datastore then have borg running on another server which can access that datastore?


Looking closer at: XSITools: block level deduplication over VMFS - that sounds right until I read this paragraph:

Other FS available through NFS/iSCSI/FC

The above paragraph has to do with VMFS file systems, or in a more plain language, hard disks that are directly connected to our host controller and formatted by using this VMWare propietary FS. VMFS was designed to host VMs, not to store a pile of smaller chunks of data, that's why their designers weren't thinking about hosting de-duplicated data. In any case, most of the times, the storage we will be using is an external NAS connected via NFS/iSCSI/FC, therefore those datastores will be formatted under a different FS: ext3, ext4, BTRFS, XFS, NTFS, FAT32, etc...

That doesn't seem correct to me. Using ESXI 6.5 I can mount either NFS or ISCSI, format it with VMFS and use it as an additional datastore.

What I am looking for is a solution which can backup VMs to a datastore and keep a set of historic backups i.e. 4 weekly and 7 daily ones. ideally differential backups. So is XSITools what I need?

#6 Re: General matters » Need some help deciding if XSI backup is right for my needs » 2017-09-07 12:09:45

prehcm
admin wrote:

Well, in sake of speed I would backup to a different physical disk or array, if you can make it be a different datastore at the end of an NFS share better, as you will, on addition, count with some sort of physical distance between your main datastore, where the production VMs are, and your backups.

To protect backups against a physical theft, just use encryption in your backup file system.

Thanks for the quick reply. That makes sense so far to me. Lets assume I mount an additional datasore via a NFS share or ISCSI and the underlying HD is encrypted and only allows RW access from this server's particular IP, that sounds secure enough I assume.

If I go this route, what is the best way to do differential backups or maybe even deduplicated ones with xsi backup? Reading throug the docs on your site I see terms like OneDiff, XSITools, XSIDiff and more.
Do you have a link to a specific how-to on your blog? I see there are quite a few around but I'm not sure what I need to read up on.

#7 General matters » Need some help deciding if XSI backup is right for my needs » 2017-09-07 11:37:41

prehcm
Replies: 8

I'm looking for some help deciding if this product can do what I need and how best to do this. I tried figuring it out but there are so many configuration options that I am not 100% this is the right tool.

Basically I am busy with a new project which I need to ISO 27001 certify which consists of 1 vmware esxi 6.5 server which needs to be secured. So apart from securing it via firewalls, having each VM require a boot-password I am looking to secure my backups.

I assume that if I am looking to create differential possibly deduplicated backups I will need to have "local" backups and by that I mean on the same datastore where vmware and xsi backup are running and my VMs are stored (which is one and the same - its a hwardware RAID10 consisting out of 4 SSDs).
I am able to use external storage for the backups too in various forms and protocols i.e. NFS/FTP/SSH/etc.

The problem I am unsure how to solve is how to secure the server against the case in which a HD is physically stolen. Currently, if a HD is stolen, apart from it being a part of a RAID10 all you can get from it are my esxi configuration and the VMs which require a boot-password so the information is well-protected but how would I secure the backups on the HDs?

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